A New Year's Promise
by 2pennies
Summary: GioBetty. Gio gives Betty a gift, and he gets one in return.


**Title**: A New Year's Promise

**Author**: 2pennies

**Rating**: G

**Fandom**: Ugly Betty

**Pairing**: Gio/Betty

**Disclaimer**: I am not affiliated with ABC, Ugly Betty, the characters and creators.

**Note**: I wanted to write a post-Christmas fic following 'Bananas for Betty' after Gio sort of gets hit with a realization with the help from Hilda.

* * *

He stared at the doorbell that his index finger had been hovering over for the past ten minutes in confusion. He drew his hand down. Shaking his head, his finger lingered over the small white button once more. Letting out a disgruntled sigh, his hand moved back down, and he glared at the doorbell again; this time in defeat. 

"You can press it you know," he heard from behind him. Gio whipped around to find Betty bundled in her winter clothes, clumsily attempting to balance the grocery bags and her purse at once. Instinct setting in, he walked down the steps and grabbed a bag from her hands.

"Ugh, thanks," she said still attempting to reach inside her purse while making her way to the door.

"I was going to ring the doorbell…" he began as he slowly followed her.

"Nobody's home right now anyways," she stated as she stuck the keys that she had finally managed to fish out of her bag into the door.

"Hurry inside, it's freezing out there!" she said shuffling into the warmth of her house and feeling herself defrost immediately.

Gio followed behind her quietly, shutting the door behind him. He hadn't expected the house to be empty since he'd only ever been there when the entire Suarez family was swarming within, and the quiet that reached his ears only unnerved him more than he already was. Following Betty into the kitchen, who had somehow managed to take off her jacket and scarf without putting down the bags of groceries, he set his bag on the table. Betty placed hers near the refrigerator and immediately began putting things away without a second thought.

"Justin dragged Hilda and my dad to go shopping. Something about a post-Christmas bonanza sale on cashmere scarves," she began explaining. "They'll probably be back soon though." She continued to shift around the room putting groceries away.

Unsure of what to do and say, Gio carefully began taking out the groceries that were in his bag and setting them on the table. He recognized one of the jars and gave a small smile.

"Hey, it's the honey mustard sauce I was telling you about," he said holding it up for her to see. Betty looked past the cabinet door to see what he was talking about.

"Oh yeah," she replied walking towards him. "It was really good in that sandwich you made for me at the Christmas Eve luncheon, so I thought I'd try it on some other sandwiches." She gave him a smile as she took the jar from his hand. Catching himself before he gazed a little too long, he looked down and continued to unload the grocery bag.

"I was hoping you'd like that one. I sort of wanted to test it out on you, see if my Eater gave it a thumbs up approval," he said with a smirk looking up to catch her glare and roll her eyes.

"I'd be a lot angrier about the whole Eater nickname if your sandwiches weren't so good," she called from behind the cabinet door slightly annoyed. Gio laughed out loud. Betty walked over to him again taking a few cans.

"I'm glad you're clearly still enjoying '_our thing_'," she emphasized with finger quotes walking towards the cabinets. Gio smiled warmly, thoroughly enjoying the current situation. Everything had been going a million times better than he had imagined from just moments ago while he was shivering in front of her front door.

"You can watch TV if you want until Hilda comes back," she said looking at him while taking the last of the groceries that he placed on the table. A twinge of nervousness began to creep back into his body. _Too good to last_, he thought. She looked over at him with a small look of curiosity, and he finally made up his mind.

"Actually, I sort of came over to see you," he began. She shut the door to the refrigerator and walked towards him slowly, clearly curious. Gio reached into his pocket taking out an envelope. He reached for her and put the envelope in her hand. Amused and still confused, she gave him a nervous smile and opened the envelope.

"Tickets?" she began as she pulled them out.

"Yeah, it's The Little Mermaid," he said half embarrassed while the other half was on the edge of panic. She looked up at him obviously shocked.

"Uh, well, I still felt sort of bad about Wicked night. I know it was awhile ago, but I've always sort of felt like it was somewhat my fault. I know you got in a fight with your boss and then everything with Eggsalad. So…" he trailed not sure what else he should say without giving away anything too personal.

"Gio, this is so…" Betty began still amazed. She looked at the tickets again as if to check and see if they were real. Her head shot back up, eyes etched in wonder.

"But how did you know I loved The Little Mermaid?" she questioned curiously.

"Ah. I noticed your bed sheets once when I went upstairs," he stated sheepishly. Betty gave an embarrassed look but still thoroughly happy. Gio tried his luck.

"That and the fact that you had that "Part of Your World" ringtone for weeks," he mused. Betty smiled, giving a look of disbelief.

"I was just celebrating the fact that they finally turned it into a Broadway musical and that it was finally opening," she explained in a matter-of-fact tone.

"Yeah, well. I figured you wouldn't really want to go back to see Wicked – sort of leaves a tainted mark right? I'm sure you and Eggsalad will have a good time at this though. He must love those things right? I didn't even know where to get tickets. I had to ask around and finally ended up asking Antonella to look it up for me and – " Betty surprisingly grabbed his wrist with a look of bewilderment.

"You went through a lot of trouble?" she asked cautiously looking up at him. Her dark brown eyes fed the nervousness that he had been trying to hide. Cursing himself in the back of his mind for divulging too much through his anxious rambling, he shook out of it and broke their eye contact.

"Nah, not that much. I mean, it wasn't anything big. I just, you know, wanted to say sorry about that night," he mumbled lightly. Hoping to cover his tracks a bit, he continued. "And I wanted to get you something for Christmas since you're my best customer and all. Testing my new creations and…just all the support you give me, my dreams. You know, even when I call you my Eater." His eyes met with Betty's again to find they had softened and were now slightly glistening. She shook her head, breaking their eye contact this time.

"Gio…but this is too much. I didn't get you anything…," she stated hesitantly.

"No, really. Just go, have a good time. I'm just sorry I didn't get it to you before Christmas. Things were just sort of hectic," he replied. "Just think of it as a New Year's gift. Maybe a New Year's promise." Betty looked up at him curiously.

"A promise that you'll keep testing out my sandwiches and coming by the deli for all of 2008?" he stated with a warm grin and a hopeful expression. Betty smiled and nodded.

"I promise I'll go to your deli everyday for lunch and I'll bring Christina more often and I'll send staff emails to everyone about your new daily specials," Betty jabbered, clearly excited. She looked down at the tickets again and let out a small yelp before she flew her arms around Gio and gave him a warm embrace. Slightly taken back by her sudden jolt of giddiness, he steadied himself as he slowly pulled her closer to him attempting to enjoy the moment for everything it was worth.

_Never knew I was such a masochist_, he thought to himself before he felt her let go.

The two shuffled awkwardly in the silence before Gio let out a huge breath.

"I guess I'll just head out then," he said heading towards the door with Betty following him. As Gio was about to reach out for the door, he heard muffled voices from the other side. The door swung open with Hilda and Justin rushing in while arguing (Gio heard Justin in mid-sentence ranting about how 'plaid was the new black' whatever that meant) as Betty's dad trudged behind holding bags in both hands.

"Gio!" yelped Hilda when she realized he had taken a few steps backwards towards the living room. "What brings you over here?" she playfully asked with a quick glance over toward Betty. Justin waved hi as he and Ignacio took off their winter jackets.

"Just bringing Betty a late Christmas gift," he replied simply, not giving into her bemused questioning.

"That's so nice of you Gio!" Hilda let out as she moved towards Betty.

"Yeah, well, better late than never I figured," Gio said. Deciding that having to explain the gift once to Betty was enough on his nerves for one day, he planned an exit strategy before he'd be questioned again. Plus, with Hilda around, he was sure something awkwardly embarrassing would happen within five minutes. Looking down at his watch, he let out a small whistle. "Well, I better go. I promised Antonella that I'd take her and her friends to a movie."

"Are you sure you can't stay for dinner?" Ignacio asked as he moved the bags onto the sofa. Gio nodded with regret.

"Maybe next time. Thank you though," he said with a smile. "Happy New Year's, Mr. Suarez. Bye Hilda, Justin." He took a brief second to look at Betty who was still wearing the goofy ecstatic expression and smiled.

"Happy New Year's, Betty," he said warmly. He moved towards the door and walked outside into the cold. Sticking his hands in his pockets, he made his way home with a feeling of bittersweet relief.

* * *

A week into the new year and Gio had been even busier than usual. Betty was good on her word and had sent mass emails to everyone at Meade advertising his sandwiches ("I told them you figured out a way to turn relish into a weightloss condiment," she had told him over the phone a few days ago). Gio made his way up to the Mode floor with a couple of sandwiches in hand. He made his way towards Christina's workspace where he usually found her and Betty only to be met with a frantic Christina who was alone and appeared to be yelling absurdities in Scottish. Or maybe it was English, Gio wasn't really sure. 

"Whoa, Christina. What's wrong?" he asked putting the sandwiches on a corner of the table that was overflowing with clothes. Christina spun around towards Gio.

"Oh! Just about everything. We're missing an entire wardrobe set for the photoshoot today, I'm suppose to take inventory for the pre-summer stock we're getting in, and Wilhelmina brought this ridiculous frock over about ten minutes ago and expects me to alter it up for her in about an hour," she rambled bringing her hand to her face while motioning toward the mess of fabric that had been set on the table.

"Maybe…you should sit down," he lightly motioned her toward a nearby chair.

"Right," she said as she sat down cautiously.

"Betty's out trying to figure out what happened to the clothes for the shoot today. Oh, that reminds me…" she explained in a calmer voice as she reached into the pocket of her skirt. She handed a familiar piece of paper with a post-it on it over to Gio. Curiously, he took it and read the note.

'_Henry can't make it. Huge accounting dilemma. Figured you were dying to see singing fish anyways. See you tonight! - Betty'_

Gio smiled at the neatly scrawled writing to find one of the tickets he had given her stuck to the post-it. Christina, noticing the goofy look he was giving towards the note, gave a small cough. He brought his attention back to her still half dazed.

"If you want, I could try calling her? See where she is?" Christina offered. Gio shook his head.

"Nah, she's probably busy. Thanks for the message," he offered as nonchalantly as he could. He picked up the sandwich he brought and handed it to her. "Eat it, it'll make you feel better," he offered.

"Thanks," Christina said warmly. Gio got up and said goodbye. He knew it would be better for him to give Christina the space she needed.

Entering the elevator to go back down to his deli, he took the post-it note off the ticket when he saw something written on the back of it.

'_PS – I'm really excited about tonight. I hope you are too.'_

Gio smiled, instantly remembering the feeling of her warm hug from when he had given the tickets to her.

_This is already turning out to be an interesting year_, he thought to himself.

* * *


End file.
